Loyalty Program Resources For Businesses

How to Stay Above Your Customer’s Expectations Every Time – Part 1

When it comes down to the wire, there’s only one real reason why customers keep coming back to you – and that’s because you either keep meeting their expectations or surpassing them.

In today’s competitive e-commerce world, everyone is trying every single method to keep head above water, and still give their customers more, to keep them coming back. One method that is proving to be more and more popular is Loyalty Programs. In the United States alone, it has been estimated that over 51% of brands have plans to either be more creative with, or increase their Loyalty budget spending this year. This just goes to show, ‘aint nobody gat time to play games’.

So, as a proud member of the Customer Loyalty family, how do you stay ahead of the competition, and meet/surpass your customer’s expectation every single time?
Some no brainer answers would be to improve customer service or even give more discounts, but these fall under even broader categories that answer the question posed above flawlessly.

We will take a look at 3 categories today in Part 1, and round this off next week!

1. Explicit Expectations
No matter the stage your customer is in – potential or loyal; they still expect one thing from you – Value. This comes in various forms (customer service, extra customer perks, product availability etc) but in the end still boils down to receiving value. These are the Explicit Expectations of your customer.

Since Loyalty Rewards is one of the best ways to give your customers more value for their money, making the value easily accessible and achievable is a great way to exceed your customers’ expectations. By doing something as simple as giving your customers ‘welcome points’ i.e: immediate gratification as they sign on to your Loyalty Program, they already get a sense of value and fulfillment they most likely were not expecting. This makes participation in your Loyalty Program seem easier and more feasible causing them to get more value for simply being associated with your brand.

2. Implicit Expectations
In basic terms, this means determining your offerings based on the standard the ‘best brands’ in your industry have set. Chances are, the best brands out there are doing something right – that’s why they’re the best/most popular. Fashioning your own Loyalty offerings to match or supersede theirs would give your customers the same or more value if they choose to shop with you.

These popular brands have a major section of customers patronizing them, and because of their superior offerings, this raises the expectations of their customers. So, if you then offer less, it translates to a loss for your brand as you would be offering customers less than what they are currently used to.

For example, if you are a shopping outlet, watching what brands like Shoprite & Park ‘n’ Shop offer their customers would help you give your customers a similar or better offering, which matches or beats the expectations of your customer.

3. Universal Performance Expectation
It is absolutely important to ensure all your platforms are spreading the same message. Having great customer service, delivery options, product offerings, and a bad outfit or follow-up to your Customer Loyalty platform does not say well of your brand. Do not forget that bad news spreads faster than good.

Universal Performance Expectations demand that your Customer Loyalty platform has the same level of accessibility, performance, customer service, reliability & relations customers would get when they walk into the physical store. If customers get a great experience with your brand in person, and a bad one with your Loyalty Program, it will give them mixed feelings when relating with your brand next time.

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We wish we had all the time in the world to get into the other categories, but unfortunately we don’t. So, make it a date with us next week to see 4 other categories of Customer Expectations you need to know.

And if you wish to start your Loyalty Program today, we can show you how. Simply visit www.citycard.com.ng or call 0816261699.